https://www.reddit.com/r/CompetitiveEDH/comments/4akekw/primer_building_budget_yisan_200/

Looking in on cEDH as a format, you may be aware of how costly it can be to put together a deck that can compete at a cutthroat table. The extremely high cost of ABUR duals and fetches can often put multi-color decks out of the price range of prospective players; couple this with artifact mana and expensive staples and cEDH decks can (and often do) exceed a $3k price point. It can be a daunting prospect for a novice spike to start amassing the cards necessary to have a competitive deck.

Enter Yisan: a powerful, consistent commander in mono-color with an active gameplan, a broad and responsive toolbox at his disposal, and playstyle different than any other commander -- thus desiring different (and subsequently cheaper) cards than the rest of the pack. He likely stands as the cheapest competitive deck to build minimum and to fully optimize. My goal is to provide a shell to get a budget-conscious player up and stomping some face with a clear path to upgrading the deck to its fullest potential.

Without further adieu:

Budget Yisan, $200

My budgetless Yisan, $1,000

(If these lists were helpful to you, a TappedOut upvote would be wonderful!)

The Core

As with any deck, there are some necessary cards that are integral to the deck's operation; luckily, Yisan's true core is very cost-minimal with a few moderate exceptions. Craterhoof Behemoth, Seedborn Muse, and Staff of Domination stand out as the >$15 cards that are irreplaceable for the deck to function as intended. Do not cut corners on these. The rest of Yisan's necessary core is actually very inexpensive: Quirion Ranger, Scryb Ranger, Sakura-Tribe Scout, Umbral Mantle, Shaman of Forgotten Ways, Temur Sabertooth.

The creature toolbox you play around the core is much more variable (in both price and how you can tune it to your local meta), but the most versatile pieces remain inexpensive: Caustic Caterpillar, Sylvan Safekeeper, Phyrexian Revoker, Reclamation Sage, Bane of Progress, Whisperwood Elemental, Acidic Slime. I've included some of the most important semi-expensive toolbox pieces that serve roles that no other budget cards can fill: Duplicant, Eternal Witness, Scavenging Ooze.

Cost Concessions & Budget Options

One of the largest points of suboptimality of the budget build over the optimized version of the deck is the loss of consistency in playing Yisan turn 2. This is one of the most important parts of piloting the deck well -- you should mulligan aggressively to play Yisan turn 2 or earlier. If you fail to do this, you not only slow your clock down, but you risk losing tempo to a turn 2 stax piece like Sphere of Resistance, and open yourself up to an extra (later) turn of removal being used on Yisan before you can protect him with his first activation.

You need a very high density of ways of ramping on turn 1; the budget build loses several ways of doing this: Chrome Mox, Mox Diamond, Exploration, Burgeoning, Crop Rotation for Ancient Tomb, Mana Crypt. To make up for this, the build runs some suboptimal cards in these slots: Lotus Petal, Mana Vault, Skyshroud Ranger, Elvish Spirit Guide, Jeweled Amulet. It is NOT wise to omit any of the remaining 1-drop ramp for budget (that is, do NOT cut Birds of Paradise, ESG, Petal, Green Sun's Zenith for Dryad Arbor). Relatively high land count is necessary to ensure that Sakura-Tribe Scout and Skyshroud Ranger are sufficient to enable T2 Yisan.

The other large budget omission is the exclusion of the stax package (which I've replaced with more artifact/enchantment control). Yisan has a very strong matchup against stax and plays around it very well, as neither Null Rod nor Winter Orb can shut off your dorks or extra-land playing engines. You also can respond to Tangle Wire in upkeep with Yisan activations, and will generally prefer pulling creatures in with Yisan to casting spells, navigating around Spheres and Thorns with ease. Thus, it's an intuitive jump to play stax yourself -- it also has the added benefit of improving your worst matchup, which is fast, spell-based combo. Given the pricy nature of the stax pieces, I've moved them to the propspective additions to the deck, and put other disruption in its place. Namely, filling the slots with artifact and enchantment disruption, which is the next best thing to slow down fast decks that use artifact ramp or artifact/enchantment based combo pieces. The budget additions that may not make it to the budgetless build are: Viridian Zealot, Nullmage Shepard, Deglamer, Krosan Grip, Seeds of Innocence, Wickerbough Elder.

The Path Forward

Gaea's Cradle is the single biggest power upgrade you can make to the deck. Once you've acquired a Cradle, it becomes attractive to play more ways of fetching and absuing it: Crop Rotation, Sylvan Scrying, Voyaging Satyr.

Ancient Tomb (along with Crop Rotation) make for another way to play turn 2 Yisan, and also help play early stax pieces once you add them.

Command Beacon is a decent potential addition that can help alleviate Yisan's cost if his commander tax becomes prohibitively expensive.

Forest → Gaea's Cradle

Forest → Ancient Tomb

Forest → Command Beacon

Ghost Quarter → Wasteland

Wood Elves → Sylvan Scrying

Wickerbough Elder → Crop Rotation

? → Expedition Map

Forests → Snow-Covered Forests + Mouth of Ronom

Artifact ramp is an obvious inclusion and upgrade. Not much to say about this, other than turn 1 Yisan is a good play.

Jeweled Amulet → Mana Crypt

Lotus Petal → Mox Diamond

Elvish Spirit Guide → Chrome Mox

A package to play extra lands is one strong direction to take the deck; it enables T2 Yisan, recasting Yisan easily if he is removed, playing well with Quirion Ranger, and just generally allowing you to play and reach critical mana mass faster.

Skyshroud Ranger → Burgeoning

Treefolk Harbinger → Exploration

? → Azusa, Lost but Seeking

? → Oracle of Mul Daya

The stax package is very strong and shores up your bad matchups. It is a significant upgrade to the deck's power.

Krosan Grip → Trinisphere

Viridian Zealot → Thorn of Amethyst

Deglamer → Sphere of Resistance

Nullmage Shepherd → Tangle Wire

Autumn's Veil → Winter Orb

Seeds of Innocence → Null Rod

? → Choke

? → Chalice of the Void (?)

There are also several upgrades you can make to improve the quality of your draws and improve your ability to find the right silver bullet.

Fierce Empath → Sylvan Library

? → Sensei's Divining Top

? → Mirri's Guile

? → Chord of Calling

? → Worldly Tutor

? → Summoner's Pact

4 Forests → 4 Fetchlands

Conclusion

I hope I was able to give some aspiring Yisan plays some insight into how to build Yisan effectively on a budget. This deck has impressed me from it's first play, and I'm incredibly glad Yisan gives mono-Green a chance to shine in this format. If I helped one person pick up and play Yisan, this guide was an accomplishment. (Play primer coming soon™?)